I decided to change this blog back to the original title. At the end of all my thinking, that is my ultimate target, even if it takes me a few years. And I think it might take a few years to be ready to run a marathon in under 3 hours!

This year has been a good year, no injuries and I may well run double what I did in 2011. More importantly is that I have been able to establish a really good base, and my speed is getting better.
I recognise that I need that base, trying to increase my speed without a good base caused injury before. I am now seeing the positive results of it.

Earlier this year, I was very pleasantly surprised at the Debrecen half marathon to run 1h30m18, and perhaps could have been faster if there hadn't been a queue at the begining. I followed it up with a personal best at the Vienna marathon - 3h18m50. That was slower than I had expected, but I had rested too much in the taper (rest period). I was pleased with that Vienna marathon run as I really dug very very deep to run the last 6km very fast - probably under 4m30 per km pace - my heart rate went up above 170 towards the end. I am 41 and my upper zone limit is supposed to be 152 :)

Question now is whether I can get close to that in the Budapest marathon, and do I want to go for a new pb (personal best) there? My major target for this year, is to run a half marathon in under 90 minutes this year. The obvious choice for that is Siofok where I have run personal bests before.
Budapest is not a run I enjoy, I have bad memories of the feluljaro by Nyugati, and walking up lehel utca and Dozsa Gy. ut is hilly and has bad memories. I think I'll have to run the first 20km at 4m40 pace and see where I am at halfway. My bigger problem is that I am probably not motivated enough to really push. Knowing me, I'll probably get excited with how I feel at 20km, and then lose the motivation to push hard through that barrier like I did in Vienna at 35km :)
Today I ran almost 31km at 4m44 pace which surprised me - I didn't think I could do that outside a race, and I feel better than I would expect after that!

For Siofok and the half marathon, I think I should be able to manage under 90 minutes. I really hope so. My fitness 'took a break' after the Vienna marathon - not surprising, as I can't keep that intensity up all the time. But now I am getting back into the rhythm and just recently I have been putting in the best times of my life. 800 metre intervals consistently around 3 minutes and begining to push under it. I just need to keep that going for 2 more months.

It seems to me that I need to focus on several details one by one. The first one is my breathing. I feel that while I am getting very very fit, my breathing is still not perfect. I feel I am not taking oxygen fully when getting tired.
I should be able to run at 5 min/km pace and be able to comfortably vary my breathing speed and talk, but I feel it is short. So I have ordered a power breather from England, I am rather curious whether it will make any difference. I doubt it will for the Budapest marathon, but maybe for Siofok? I guess I'll have to see.

I'll also be careful with my taper (rest period) before each race. Certainly there will be less rest than I took before as I felt I lost fitness before. I am not sure if running 31km today - 7 days before the marathon was slightly ambitious. I guess I'll see :)

Good luck to all running at the Budapest marathon or other events.